This is how you do a festival trip 'making of' film...by Jim Cummings & the Thunder Road team, who won Sundance Best Short in 2016 - it gets weird. Enjoy...
Charlie Kaufman Bafta Masterclass (2011)
The man..."One of modern cinema’s most celebrated writers, Kaufman’s work includes surreal fantasy Being John Malkovich, cerebral sci-fi Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and comedy drama Adaptation. In this lecture held at BAFTA on 30 September 2011, he discusses the techniques of writing for the big screen."
Some filmmaking inspiration from Kevin Smith
Feeling a bit down in the dumps about your 'many projects in various stages of development'? Well don't, just spend 15 minutes with Kevin as he outlines the way to circumnavigate the front door, and how the fake listings ad that inspired Tusk got him back into filmmaking...you may not be a fan of his output, but his thought process is something we all could use a little more of...(you can skip his early life and start 4mins in if you like)
The animator behind every cool stop-motion of recent years
Phill Tippett worked on Star Wars, Return of the Jedi, Robocop, Starshop Troopers & Jurassic Park. And he took acid on Jedi...boomshanka.
Thunder Road - Sundance 2016 short film winner by Jim Cummings
Stunning performance in this Sundance winning 'oner'.
Officer Arnaud loved his Mom.
Follow the director on Twitter: twitter.com/jimmycthatsme
How I wrote Arrival (and What I Learned Doing it) by Eric Heisserer
Screenwriter Eric Heisserer shares notes and extracts from early drafts as he breaks down how he adapted Ted Chiang's "Story of Your Life." Click on the pic below:
Interview credit: www.talkhouse.com
"If we're lucky, we get ideas we fall in love with..."
David Lynch on Mulholland Drive (2001)Terrible interview which inadvertently creates a brilliant masterclass in Lynch's method by asking him questions like "What is the theme of this film?", pushing Lynch into explaining why he doesn't verbalise the theme of a film after completing it, and why no one should do so etc. It goes on..."What is the most important statement you wanted to make with this movie?" Genius... (from the 2001 Japanese DVD release extras)
'Sundays' viral short leads to Hollywood offers
"Warner Bros has won an auction for the right to create a feature out of Sundays, a dazzling 14-minute short film by first-time feature director Mischa Rozema that had at least three studios vying for it after it went viral on Monday. Sony Pictures and Fox also chased it. Sundays becomes the latest in a growing trend where emerging filmmakers are dazzling the studios with short films that offer proof of concept and demonstrate an ability to create worlds and tone. Rozema and his cohorts from Amsterdam-based PostPanic used Kickstarter to raise the $50,000 it cost to create the short that evokes films like Inception and The Matrix for its dreamy tone and mind bending visual displays." Deadline
http://deadline.com/2015/03/sundays-viral-short-film-warner-bros-mischa-rozema-1201399435/
Revealing information in Ex-Machina
At NDH we are massive Every Frame a Painting fans, but here's a pretty nice breakdown of information reveals (stages, page numbers, POV's) from a newish channel Lessons From The Screenplay (LFTS). They've done maybe 12 videos on aspects of films like what makes a strong antagonist via The Dark Knight. Check them out on YT here.
Making Sound of My Voice
An interesting (and rather sweet) interview from DP:30 with Brit Marling (co-writer/star) and Zal Batmanglij (co-writer/director) as they discuss the writing and making of The Sound of My Voice from 2012. Good on the separation of roles, how they work together as co-writers, audience expectations from lower budget films and how they are marketed. This teams went on to make The East and current Netflix hit The OA.
Follow DP/30: The Oral History of Hollywood on their YT channel here.
Empathy with the anti-hero
Nice video piece here in the style of Tony Zhou/Every Frame a Painting about empathising with anti-heroes, the issue of likeability vs empathy, and why we can continue watching characters we may not like - they key being understanding why they act that way, through the filter of their desire.
Manoman - Bafta nomm'd short by Simon Cartwright
Using a mixture of rod marionette puppets and animation, London-based director Simon Cartwright’s darkly comic short tells the story of Glen, a man who attends a Primal Scream therapy class that causes him to release something deep within that knows no limits.
Director: Simon Cartwright
Producer: Kamilla Hodol
Format: Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera Zeiss Superspeeds & Panavision Frazier Lens
A wild, dark, punk-rock comedy following mild mannered Glen who unleashes the beast in a wild night of debauchery. The film is an incredibly unique work from graduation NFTS animation director Simon Cartwright ('Astronomer's Sun) performed by marionette puppet's.
NOMINATED - BAFTA Film Awards 2016 - BEST SHORT ANIMATION!!
WINNER
AFI Film Festival Special Jury Award for Creative Vision
Leeds Film Festival - World Animation Award
Manchester Animation Festival - Audience Award
Encounters Film Festival - Special Mention
NOMINATIONS
MOET BIFA Awards 2015 - Best Short
FILM FESTIVALS
In Competition Cannes 2015 - Cinefondation
Sundance Film Festival 2016
Telluride Film Festival 2015
AFI Film Festival 2015
BFI London Film Festival 2015
Edinburgh Film Festival 2015
London Short Film Festival 2016
Encounters Film Festival 2015
..... & many more
The lowdown on teasers
Good article here on teasers with 5 interesting examples - from Vimeo.
Joker's Pack's M.J.Blackman & Roxy Holman discuss their work
Great article from CinemaJam.com with M.J.Blackman & Roxy Holman, who talk about shorts, upcoming features Teardrop and Neon, and managing the whole thing...exciting filmmakers, follow them at www.jokerspack.com.
Director's Talk: Nicholas Winding Refn on Nowness
"The Evolving World of Digital" Jordan McGarry, Vimeo
A Script Is No Longer Enough: Proof-of-Concept
Interesting article from William Dickerson about proof-of-concept promos for your script.
Click on the image to go to the article.
Nolan on his low-budget working method
Interesting stuff from Big Chris here in a VICE interview about how he made Following based on certain decisions to with budget and stylistic approach, and lots of insights on, for example, looking through the camera to select lenses, not a monitor, as this does not allow understanding of the 3D space the actors are in, not using zoom lenses for the same reason, etc..
Linklater 'Dream is Destiny' sizzle reel
Ahead of the Linklater doc Dream is Destiny coming out Nov 2016, we found this awesome sizzle reel recounting the life and work of the director, love it:
David Fincher "And the Other Way is Wrong"
This is genius - Tony Zhou's Every Frame a painting series is captivating, insightful and often very funny as he dissects directors, actors and film technique (also check out 'The Speilberg One'er') - and this one on Fincher makes you appreciate even more the high level of craft that Fincher consistently works at.
"For sheer directorial craft, there are few people working today who can match David Fincher. And yet he describes his own process as “not what I do, but what I don’t do.” Join me today in answering the question: What does David Fincher not do?"
Follow Tony/Every Frame here:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tonyszhou
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/everyframeap...